Third The Golden Bird
by Tatsumaki-sama
Summary: " First the worst. Second the best. And ..." It was those few words that began Gilbert's quest to find and meet that cute new student who keeps eluding him, whether intentionally or not. Fem!Canada x Gilbert


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Axis Powers Hetalia or any of its characters.

**Third The Golden Bird****  
**

Gilbert was sure that he had just seen some sort of angel wandering in the hallways of his school.

Despite wearing the standard uniform of the white blouse accompanied by a black tie and a skirt and looking plain as any other girl he had seen in the school, there was something about this particular girl that caught his eye. (and made him question why on earth he hadn't seen her before) Her blond hair wavered in the air and it reminded him of his pet birds, also butter-colored like her hair and tiny enough to fit snugly into the palm of his hands. One of her slender hands was pushing through the contents of her locker to get her books and the other was tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear.

As he lurked closer towards her, bobbling between groups of students, he could hear her murmuring a rhythm that sounded ludicrously familiar to his ears.

" First the first. Second the best. And ..."

Her voice trailed off as she disappeared from his sight and out of reach.

~.~.~

" Is something the matter?" Ludwig asked, surprised by the look of blankness on Gilbert's face when he saw him later.

Gilbert wasn't sure if he could even speak properly at the moment. He suddenly began smiling like a love struck fool, which made Ludwig even more concerned.

" ... And third the golden bird," he breathlessly announced, much to his brother's confusion.

~.~.~

" You want to know every girl in this school?" His friend Francis looked sympathetically (though mischievously) at him. " Oh, Gilbert. I know that you are feeling deprived and tired of being single but to go through every girl in this school is bound to make some boyfriends very jealous."

" Shut up and answer my question!"

It took another minute before Francis managed to subdue his chuckles. " If you insist. Let's see. There's Michelle, a first year student who's a pleasure to be around with." He smirked, evidently remembering all the fond times that he had teased and coddled her, much to Michelle's annoyance.

Rolling his eyes, Gilbert glowered impatiently at him. Francis winked before continuing. " There's the female siblings of Yao Wang you could go after. Mei, the one who always wears that Chinese outfit. Vi who always wears a straw hat. Then we have Mona, a ballet student and the lovely art student Miss Wy." He ticked off his fingers. " And you already know Elizabeta."

It was a silly question to ask. Gilbert and Elizabeta had known each other since they were children, having lived in the same neighbourhood. Even though they had different interests (she was into photography and Home Economics; he preferred soccer and world history) and she was dating the pianist Roderich Edelstein (compared to him, who was still single. For now), they remained on relatively friendly terms.

" Any others?" he crossly asked, this time directly towards his other friend, Antonio, a fellow soccer player. " What about people from the soccer team? Any sisters I don't know about?"

He thoughtfully swallowed his sandwich before answering. " Arthur's only got brothers from what I know. Feliciano and Lovino don't have sisters. Lars is the only one I could think of who has one. Bella, a second year. Remember Lovino tried flirting with her and Lars almost killed him later?" He smiled dreamily to himself, twittering delightfully to himself.

Gilbert stifled a groan, knowing Antonio was probably more entranced with the idea of a red-faced Lovino than Lars's sister. Ludwig then appeared, unaware of the conversation the trio was having. No sooner than he sat down, Gilbert bombarded him with questions. " Does your hockey team have any sisters? What about girlfriends? What about girlfriends' friends?"

With a raised eyebrow, he calmly answered, deciding to humour Gilbert. " Ivan has two sisters, Katyusha and Natalia - "

" Yeah, yeah. I know about Ivan." Even just thinking about the Russian captain of the hockey team brought a sour taste to his mouth. " Anyone else?"

" Vash has Lili. The rest only have brothers and no girlfriends from what I know."

It could possibly be Lili or Bella, Gilbert mused to himself. They both did appear to match the description of that girl. Though it was a fact that their brothers had a brother complex about their sisters. Vash had a short temper and so did Lars. Neither of them would have a problem bringing in guns or dragging him to the back alley to murder him for dating their sisters.

Well, that only made things more interesting.

~.~.~

Carefully, Gilbert positioned himself near the lockers where he had first seen the blond girl who he had now dubbed Golden Bird because of her strange rhythm that was now permanently stuck in his brain. He had sprinted all the way here after the bell had rung, waiting for her to appear.

Which she eventually did.

He was wrong. It wasn't Lili or Bella (and it did make his life considerably easily now that he didn't have to worry about two certain crazy brothers). Now that he had a closer look at Golden Bird, he saw that she had wavy pigtails with red maple leaf hair ties. She wore glasses that were tipped down on her little curved nose and her purple eyes sparkled behind them. On the back of her locker, there were various notes attached, most of the magnets in the form of polar bears, Canadian Mounties and hockey sticks.

Not a moment was to be wasted. Gilbert casually slid beside her locker, the movement making her look up in surprise.

" Yes?" she asked, a faint blush on her cheeks.

This was going to be a piece of cake. Leaning against the lockers, his winning smirk widened as he purposely slanted closer to her. " You're cute. Let's go out," he demanded with as little discretion as possible.

The hallway suddenly got quiet and Golden Bird's face darkly flushed. And the next thing Gilbert knew was Alfred Jones, star football player and quarterback, appearing from nowhere and looking angrier than he had ever seen the guy before. Without warning, he slung an arm around Gilbert's neck and promptly dragged him off to who-knows-where.

So no one was really surprised when Alfred was suspended for five days afterwards.

~.~.~

" How was I supposed to know she was Jones's girlfriend? Ouch! Not so hard!"

" Perhaps you should have used more tact, _Bruder_. Or else you'd be giving Alfred another reason to beat you again."

" It was a lucky shot and I just let that bastard - ouch!"

~.~.~

Well, either way, Alfred being suspended gave him a chance to meet up with Golden Bird, whose real name he still didn't know yet.

Gilbert (in)discreetly hung around her locker, ignoring the looks of passing students, who could clearly see the litter of bruises across his face and by now all knew about his run-in with Alfred Jones.

As expected, she was making her way to her locker. Today, she had her hair tied up into a bun, making her appear bookishly cute.

(Just the thought of Golden Bird as a sexy librarian lecturing him on an overdue book was enough to bring delightful shivers to his spine)

But just as Gilbert was about to saunter over to her, to his horrified surprise, he saw fellow soccer player Arthur Kirkland walking up to her and already striking up a light conversation with her.

Quickly dodging behind a cluster of questioning students, Gilbert seethed quietly. What was that bastard doing, going after Golden Bird? And to add to his ire, she was smiling at Kirkland and speaking animatedly about something. Not a smirk or a half-hearted one. But a genuine smile that was soft and happy all at once. It made her eyes light up even more than before.

It left a burning sensation in his chest that Golden Bird was smiling for someone other than him.

~.~.~

" So Kirkland, I see you've been taking advantage of Jones's absence," Gilbert smirked as they jogged laps around the soccer field after school. Despite soccer season still some time away, their coach wanted to get them as fit as possible.

Arthur's eyebrows rose indignantly into his hairline. " What are you going on about?" he scowled.

" Since Jones is out of the way, you got to make your move, didn't you?" He 'playfully' ribbed Arthur in the gut, making it hard enough to make the other boy wince. Revenge was best served cold, particularly to those who stole **_his _**Golden Bird.

" I swear, if you don't start making sense right now ..."

Sighing dramatically, he wagged a finger in front of Arthur's fuming face. " I saw you trying to flirt up Jones' girlfriend."

Arthur snorted derisively. " Alfred having a girlfriend? That git is so dense he wouldn't even know if a girl did ask him out."

Stopping entirely on the track, he stared at Arthur as if it was the first time seeing him. " Then who was it that you were talking to at lunch?" he demanded._ And why did Jones beat me up for it? _he silently added.

" The only girl I talked to during lunch was my cousin," Arthur snapped, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at him.

There was a pause.

_Cousin?_

~.~.~.~

**Author's Notes:**

Michelle - Seychelles

Mei - Taiwan

Vi - Vietnam

Mona - Monaco

Wy - Principality of Wy

Lars - Netherlands/Holland

Bella - Belgium

Thanks to everyone who read this and left a review. This was my first time writing a PruCan fic and a high school setting one at that too. I hope I got everyone in character.


End file.
